Earthrise

Designed by Perepau Llistosella and Eloi Pujadas, Earthrise is part of Kokorin's 'Flashback' series of games themed around an iconic historic photograph. In this case, it's the famous shot of the Earth from space taken during the Apollo 8 mission.

Earthrise is a very different game from Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, which is the last 'Flashback' game we featured on Board's Eye View. Tho' there's a board and various tokens, Earthrise is essentially a tricktaking card game with four suits: Apollo, Astronauts, Photograph and Alert. It takes 3-5 players and follows conventional tricktaking rules except that you can always play an Alert card even if you have cards in the lead suit.

A track on the board shows a Maneuver token for each trick. The Maneuver token is won not by the player who wins the trick but by the player who plays a card that meets the token's requirements (for example, a card of a specified number or the lowest card in a named suit), with priority in the case of ties given to the last qualifying card played. You want to win Maneuver tokens because you can cash them in for puzzle pieces. If, over the course of the game, you manage to collect the four different puzzle pieces that form the Earthrise photo you'll reap a substantial bonus score. We weren't so keen on the high luck factor tho' over drawing puzzle pieces.

If you played the second highest card in the lead suit, you get to take your choice of the cards in the trick. The player of the highest card in the lead suit takes all the other cards. You score points for the cards you win in this way, except that Alert cards mean you have to pick up Alert tokens. The rules state that there's an end-game bonus for the player with 'the fewest Alert tokens' tho' as the Alert tokens are drawn face down and have different values, our assumption is that that should read 'lowest total value of Alert tokens'.

There are some special 'radio silence' rules for tricks when Apollo 8 is on the far side of the moon. For these tricks, cards are played face down so you don't know the value of the cards others have played, and you can optionally play with an (unrevealed) asymmetric extra scoring ability. However, the dynamic that stands out in Earthrise is the ability to play an Alert card even if you could follow suit. It means you can lumber the trick winner with Alerts, and a canny player might be able to claim the Maneuver token into the bargain. We also like the fact that the Maneuver requirements are set out at the start of each round so players can take the information into account in managing and playing their hands.

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